This sensitive young man had sunk to his knees, legs weakened by emotion, when he became the first Swiss winner of a men's Grand Slam title, just too smart for Mark Philippoussis.

Later he was bawling like a baby, the eyes scrunched up with tears. It resulted in the headline "Roger Blubberer", which at least caused him to smile while relaxing at his garden table yesterday.

"Looking back, I wonder why I did this to myself. There was a little too much emotion," he said. "There are too many tears in the papers. I wish there were a few more of me holding the trophy, but all the pictures show me crying.

Although he did the junior double in 1998, the Champions' Dinner at the Savoy was his first knees-up here. He turned down an invitation then because he had been handed a wild card to his first ATP Tour event, in Gstaad, Switzerland.

And in a sweet piece of symmetry, Federer jetted home to honour commitments at the same tournament, a claycourt event that the locals call "the Wimbledon of the Alps".

"Now I'm not just a tennis player," Federer said. "I guess I'm a bit of a celebrity, too. My star sign is Leo and we like being the centre of attention. Pete Sampras is a Leo, too."

His girlfriend, Miroslava Vavrinec - a former tennis player herself - handles his publicity. He is also guided by his parents - "but in a very nice way", assures Boris Becker. They stay in the shadows, not even sitting in the players' box on Sunday.

So, asked to fluff out his celebrity profile, Federer said that he liked "having nice dinners with my friends, sitting on the beach" and he plays cricket and "ping-pong". The media guide, though, lists his hobbies as deep-sea fishing and watching American pro-wrestling.

"Oh, God," he said. "I went deep-sea fishing in South Africa once and spent seven hours being seasick. I wish they would take that out of the handbook, same as the wrestling. I used to watch that when I was younger, but not any more."

Federer is also friends with several of the FC Basle squad. Manager Christian Gross has invited the tennis player, who sees himself as a striker, to come to training. Federer, though, is scared of injury.

"I don't want to fool around and be average," Federer said. "I have to set new goals."